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Bain barrage worries Republicans

Following Thursday’s story, the problem for Romney is if voters believe he was firmly linked to the company post-1999, it will torpedo what has thus far been the Republican’s defense against many Democratic attacks against his Bain tenure.

President Barack Obama and Democrats say Bain’s companies, and by extension Romney, laid off workers and outsourced jobs, shipping them overseas. But many of those acts happened after 1999, when Romney says he wasn’t responsible because he was no longer truly running Bain. But the Globe report showing Romney linked to the private equity firm as late as 2002 could contradict those claims, at least in the eyes of voters.

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“It could be a real problem,” said GOP strategist Mark McKinnon. “The accumulation of stories about taxes and Bain and offshore and Swiss accounts and secrecy begin to put glue into the narrative Team Obama is pushing that could make it really start to stick.”

Romney’s business experience is his strongest selling point as he frequently argues his time in the private sector makes him more qualified than Obama to fix the economy. The Democratic attacks are starting to get labeled as the equivalent of the “Swift Boat” offensive that sunk John Kerry’s presidential campaign over his Vietnam war record.

Romney is violating a basic rule of politics, GOP strategist Ford O’Connell warns: Define yourself before your opponent does it for you.

“He needs to get out ahead of this and put this issue to rest before it becomes a major distraction,” O’Connell said. “He has yet to do it and if he doesn’t do it, Obama is going to do it for him.”

Not answering has the potential to eat away at Romney’s support in swing states.

“We’re starting to see evidence in some of the battleground states that this is working in the favor of the president,” O’Connell said. “There are only so many more of these chinks in the armor Romney can take.”

Banking on voters casting their ballots against Obama without Romney providing his own vision or plan is a “fool’s errand,” O’Connell said. “The key for Romney is to define himself and provide a bold, clear vision for the future,” he said.

Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster who worked for Gingrich during the primary, said Romney can easily turn the Bain attacks into a positive by showing voters the kind of household names that were associated with the firm.

She said Romney should explain that Bain helped create Staples, Sports Authority and Burger King, well-known retailers that voters will associated with success. Romney has already done some of this, but in a very limited way.

“Romney can convert the response into an opportunity to explain what it is he did at Bain. He didn’t just show up and make a quarter of a billion dollars. He helped to start to launch or expand companies,” Conway said. “He should respond for two reasons: to show it’s just a distraction and to show that the big people talk about big ideas and small people talk about other people.”

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You - Ask how you can avoid paying for it:

Republicans aren’t just in favor of lowering taxes; now they’re applauding wildly complex efforts by the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying billions in taxes by shipping capital to other countries.

“It’s really American to avoid paying taxes, legally,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday. He was defending Mitt Romney, who, as this morning’s editorial in The Times notes, appears to have the most elaborate history of tax avoidance – offshore tax havens, disputed sheltering mechanisms, complex trusts – of any major presidential candidate in history.

Invest in the Cayman Islands, Mr. Graham seems to be saying. It’s the patriotic thing to do. - David Firestone -----------------

Meanwhile... back at the ranch and off of his rocker...

We need to balance the budget!

Paying taxes is like being shoved in an oven!

Maine Gov. Paul LePage compared the Internal Revenue Service to Nazi Germany for the second time in five days Thursday morning.

Do you have a sense of what the Gestapo did during World War II?” Heintz asked.

I am not the least bit worried about Bain Capital. It is one of the capital companies that actually invested in US business rather than shipping (not jobs but hundreds of millions of US dollars) overseas!

As for Mitt Romney, he owned the company and was on the record books, but clearly left in 1999 to bail out the US Olympics.

Who Cares?

Obama is desperate. Eric Holder is going to end up in a DOJ JAIL sometime in the next 18 months.

Obama's team is trying every Chicago tactic in the book and it isn't working.

He may have satisfied republicans with his answers about Bain in the primary, but that''s a long long way from answering the questions of the general electorate. the rest of us may have some reluctance to trust an venture capitalist after our recent experiences.

“Mitt Romney had an opportunity to answer these questions during the primary,” said Rick Tyler, who ran the pro-Gingrich super PAC that spent millions attacking Romney on the Bain issue. “ He did not answer these questions and now they’re coming up again.”

And in a show of poor strategy, Mitt will continue to defer these questions right through the debates.

If Mitt has nothing to hide, then he has nothing to worry about by giving some answers.

However, they are terrified of Obama, and fear drives people to do things they would normally find disgusting. Fear makes people stupid.

So, conservatives will eat the crap sandwich.

They will play shovel and broom brigade behind their RINO. They’ll worship him as their beloved prophet of profit, and they will ignore, deny, justify, and rationalize away every dirty lie he tells, and all his past disgusting behaviors, no matter how gross.

Conservatives and Republicans are determined to prove to Mitt Romney and the world that they are obedient little slaves to the elite and the establishment.

Conservatives and Republicans are determined to prove just how subservient they are willing to be.

They despise Mitt Romney, but they’ll support him because they’re told to support him.

Would you worry if rags like Politico ran stories above the fold day after day.....they know are not correct... and stories about dogs atop cars... and kids getting teased about haircuts....when they know the Frank Marshal disciple was working the Ayers, Farakhan, the New Party, and other wackos?

Politico jumped the shark.... but they think the Donkey and the shark will take them where they need to be.

Team Socialism is Desperate. Can't call their crowing achievement a penalty because the courts call it a tax. Obama is like Greece. They are up for the highest former soviet block bidder to give em a hand out with the bills. Ummmmm..... so shovel ready jobs weren't as shovel ready as we hoped...lol.

Team Desperate at work trying to find votes. Any votes. Wednesday, July 11, 2012 Residents angry as Obama plans to close 9 Border Patrol stations across 4 states Critics warn the closures will undercut efforts to intercept traffickers in well-traveled corridors north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The Obama administration is moving to shut down nine Border Patrol stations across four states, triggering a backlash from local law enforcement, members of Congress and Border Patrol agents themselves. Critics of the move warn the closures will undercut efforts to intercept drug and human traffickers in well-traveled corridors north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Though the affected stations are scattered throughout northern and central Texas, and three other states, the coverage areas still see plenty of illegal immigrant activity -- one soon-to-be-shuttered station in Amarillo, Texas, is right in the middle of the I-40 corridor; another in Riverside, Calif., is outside Los Angeles. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it's closing the stations in order to reassign agents to high-priority areas closer to the border. http://politics.kfyi.com/cc-co...

And Obama has nothing to hide???? Why has he spent millions to keep his records private. What a hypocrite you are! If Obama has nothing to hide,then he has nothing to worry about by giving some answers?